Video Game Environment Artist
Leslie Carerra-Keys, Rainbow Studios
Leslie Carerra-Keys is a senior environment artist at the video game company, Rainbow Studios. She worked on the new video game, Deadly Creatures, released today on the Wii.
What’s an environmental artist do?
Basically all the environments you see in a video game is what we create. So we come up with the sky, and the all the elements that are captured in the scene. We draw a lot.
What’s important to know when working in video games?
That you’re only as good as the last thing you’ve done, and that everyone knows everyone in video games. Like when I came here and was going to work with Sam Howard, our character artist. I had never met Sam, but I knew everything there was to know about him and he already knew everything there was to know about me. So the video game industry is very tight knit. It’s not a good idea to burn a bridge because that will get back around.
What advice would you give to someone who wanted your job?
Watch more music videos, movies, and anything to peak curiosity. Because that’s where a lot of your design inspiration can come from. You might see something and it can influence your later work without you even knowing it. So expose yourself to all things creative.
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